It is important for clock signals to have a duty cycle as close as possible to 50 percent to obtain the maximum operating frequency for the circuits using the clock.
A clock generator may provide a clock with a duty cycle far from 50 percent in practice. Traditional methods require a frequency divide of the original clock to guarantee a resulting clock with very close to the desired 50 percent duty cycle. Unfortunately, to achieve the desired clock signal using this technique, now the original clock must be capable of twice the desired frequency.